The Department of Education’s proposed changes to Title IX are officially open for comment, and advocacy groups are mobilizing in response. Meanwhile, Congress and the White House have less than a week to pass the final seven appropriations bills before the government shuts down (at least partially) – and it might happen if President Trump does not receive the funding he wants for his border wall. All while the incoming House majority is preparing for the next year, both in leadership assignments and strategic planning.

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Meanwhile, during the annual Federal Student Aid (FSA) Training Conference in Atlanta, Secretary Betsy DeVos called the student loan situation “a crisis in higher education” and that the government needed to become a “more responsible lender” in regards to the distribution, administration, and management of student loan programs. Unless significant policy changes are made, student aid programs will be in serious jeopardy, as too few students are paying off debt. She blames student loan programs for enticing students into debt and jeopardizing the taxpayer dollars that go into student loans.

Higher Education and student loan researchers, however, are calling into question her statement. Several claims are being investigated, including the reliance on the questionable “Bennett hypothesis”, a largely discredited hypothesis that claims that the increase in the cost of an education is due to the rise in the availability of student loans. Also in question is the implication that Obama-era lending policies are to blame for the crisis, which critics claim have no evidentiary support. Both of these claims suggest that Secretary DeVos is attempting to sway lawmakers to change student loan policy in a particular direction, especially in light of the fact that she did not provide any internal solutions to solve student loan problems.

Office of Civil Rights Mass Filer Complaints

The ED just announced a change to their case processing manual that reverses a previous position taken earlier this year. The earlier change had allowed for the dismissal of hundreds of complaints of civil rights violations on the grounds that they were “mass filers” that added too much burden to the Office of Civil Rights. The reversal seems to be in response to litigation that had been filed against the ED when they first made the change, primarily by advocacy groups for individuals with disabilities.

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The vision of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) is to be a nationally representative and internationally recognized Association that advocates for institutional and structural changes to improve graduate and professional education in the United States.

The mission of NAGPS is to:
DEVELOP, SUSTAIN, & EXPAND a member network that connects graduate and professional students across the United States to facilitate the sharing of information, resources, and best practices.
EMPOWER our members to successfully serve their graduate-professional student constituents.
AMPLIFY students’ voices to campus, local, state, and federal policymakers.